Norwegian nurses bring parents’ phone habits into the baby check-up

Public health nurses in Norway are raising screen use earlier and more often, urging parents to consider how their own phone habits shape young children’s attention, security and social development.

At a child health clinic in Tromsø, public health nurses say conversations about screens now begin earlier and recur far more often than they once did. Linda Pedersen and Katrine Hermansen Iversen said the issue is now part of their first contact with new parents, sometimes even before birth, and it remains a thread running through follow-up visits in the early years.

That shift reflects a broader change in Norway’s guidance. The Norwegian Directorate of Health has issued new national screen-use recommendations, and the public health nurses’ association says its members are using them to support families rather than police them. According to the association, the national child health programme already calls for discussion of parents’ mobile and social media use at several key points, including when a baby is around one month old, at six months, and again at two and four years. Nurses in practice say they raise the subject more often than that because it comes up naturally during the 14 standard consultations that many families attend.

Pedersen and Iversen said the aim is to avoid judgement, even when phones are visible in the waiting room or during the appointment itself. Their approach is to ask open questions about how screens fit into family life, rather than to lecture parents about limits. The nurses say the youngest children in particular depend on eye contact, attention and presence from caregivers in order to build trust and security. The association’s national resource group has also found that parents’ own screen habits matter, not just children’s use. A phone in a parent’s hand while feeding a child or supervising play can send a powerful message, one nurse described as, “The screen is more important than me”.

Public health nurses say many parents respond positively to the conversation, even if they are uncertain at first. Ann Karin Swang, who leads the nurses’ professional group, has said national advice has given health staff stronger backing when they raise the issue. The association also reports that many mothers, in particular, want to “do the right thing” and may feel pressure to be perfect. Rather than focusing only on screen time, some nurses are trying to steer the discussion towards the family’s wider digital routine, including social media feeds that can quietly shape attention and habits throughout the day.

Parents themselves recognise the tension. Martin Bystad, who is on paternity leave in Tromsø, said he tries to keep his phone away but finds it hard when messages, parking apps and work tasks pull him back in. He said his daughter quickly notices when his attention shifts. That is a familiar pattern to the nurses, who argue that children learn far more from what adults do than from what they are told. For that reason, they say reducing distraction is part of ordinary caregiving, not an optional extra.

Pedersen added that the issue is not only about family routines at home. She worries that a more screen-bound culture could also mean fewer chances for children to practise social contact in public, and fewer opportunities for adults to notice when a child may need help. The nurses say repeated, everyday encounters with other people help children build confidence and social skills. Their message to parents is simple: if adults want children to be present and engaged, they need to model that behaviour themselves.